Reality Is Worth Dreaming For
by loverofeevee
Summary: You know that theory people have about everything in Harry Potter being a dream...?


Reality Is Worth Dreaming For

 _Voldemort tilted his head a little to the side, considering the boy standing before him, and a singularly mirthless smile curled the lipless mouth._

' _Harry Potter', he said, very softly. His voice might have been part of the spitting fire. 'The boy who lived'._

 _None of the Death Eaters moved. They were waiting; everything was waiting. Hagrid was struggling, and Bellatrix was panting, and Harry thought inexplicably of Ginny, and her blazing look, and the feel of her lips on his…_

 _He saw the mouth move and a flash of green light, and everything was gone._

OOO

Harry woke up in fright, stuffing his fist into his mouth to stop him screaming. Panting he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, in and out, in and out.

His breath back to normal he opened his eyes and stared at the low ceiling.

It was only a dream.

Shifting to his side, he sighed.

It was some dream though.

In the darkness Harry managed a small smile, thinking over what he'd seen.

What an adventure that was, even if it was just a dream. Magic and awesome animals and witches and wizards.

A part of him wished he was able to see what happened next. But then he did die in the dream, so perhaps that was the end.

How in the world did his brain manage to think all that up?

Harry remembered hearing or reading somewhere that dreams couldn't create faces, that each face he saw was a face he remembered when he was awake.

Shifting back onto his back, Harry idly wondered what time it was as he thought about all the faces he'd seen.

The darkness coming from under his cupboard door said it was still late enough in the morning that Petunia wouldn't be down for a while.

Let's see…

It started with that fancy looking letter slipping though the mail box. Delivered by owl of all things.

Harry snorted.

Then there was that huge man, what was his name again?

H something. Hat…Hag…

Well whatever it was, the man reminded Harry of the big hairy man he saw a few days ago on TV, before Petunia hollered at him to stop being lazy and go do his chores.

Some king of forest man, with more beard than face.

Ok, so what happened after that? He was taken to a funny looking place and got to meet goblins.

Did goblins count when it came to remembering faces?

Harry didn't think so. He certainly couldn't remember seeing anyone quite like that before.

But anyway, he got some cool looking gold coins, went shopping, met an annoying blonde boy who was most definitely a nicer looking version of Dudley, probably what Dudley would have looked like if he wasn't so fat and had a better hair cut, then was dropped off at a train station.

And met a family of red heads.

Now them Harry could remember. The twins, though they weren't called Fred and George in real life, were at his school. They were one of the few people who spoke to him, and even let him share some of their lunch when Petunia didn't pack anything for him.

He reminded himself to tell them about the dream; they'd get a laugh out of it.

Harry smiled, he liked them, and apparently he liked them in his dreams as well, even if they were called different names. James and Oliver were their real names, and their dad was called Bill, which was funny because Bill was their oldest brother in Harry's dream. He'd only met him once, but he was so cool with his ponytail and tooth earring. That coolness obviously carried over to the dream. They did still have the red hair though, and Bill did have a partner with blonde hair, though her name wasn't Fleur.

Harry remembered it was Samantha, or something like that. The twins had told him their mom and dad had divorced some years back and their dad got custody of them. Their dad then remarried. They liked Samantha though, or whatever her name was, she was nice to them.

Harry didn't ask why their parents separated.

Though come to think of it, the names James and Oliver did find their way into the dream as well. James was his dad's name, though Harry really had no idea if that was actually true, and Oliver was the name of a sports mad older boy.

What in the world was quidditch?! And how did he dream that up?!

Then there were the other red heads, which in his dream made up one huge family. Where had he seen the others?

Oh right. Ron, his supposed best friend, and his youngest sister Ginny, was a pair of siblings he saw with their parents, the parents he gave them in the dream, out in London, one of the few times the Dursleys let him come with them. He remembered them so vividly because of their red hair.

He hadn't a clue what their real names were since he didn't speak to them, but he had thought the girl was quite cute.

Harry laughed softly under his breath. Maybe that was why she became his girlfriend in the dream.

Ok so that was everyone except from Percy and Charlie. Where had he seen them before?

Wasn't Charlie the guy he saw in the local supermarket? Harry was sure of it; the guy had muscles all over and looked more like he should be working with big animals than scanning items at the till.

Probably why he was made to be a dragon trainer in the dream.

And Percy?

Oh right. Percy was that older stuck up kid living a couple of blocks away. The one that came from a rich family and was heading for a really prestigious school next year. The one who looked down his nose at the commoners.

That sounded like Percy alright, Harry thought with a snigger.

So he met this family and got on the train, sat with Ron and got some sweets from the trolley lady, who was really one of the dinner ladies at his school.

And then he met Hermione.

Where did that name come from?!

Harry scrunched his face up as he pondered over it. Was it on TV? Or had he read it in a book.

Wait. He remembered now. He saw a Shakespeare book at the library and tried to read it.

Worse decision ever. He hadn't a clue what half of it said. Maybe when he was older.

But he did remember some of the names, and Hermione was one of them.

Ok so that solved the mystery of the name, but now the girl, where had he seen her before?

Harry suddenly remembered. A girl with the same bushy hair was at the park with her parents. She was complaining about going to the dentist.

He sympathised with her, dentists were evil, and he's only ever been once.

So that was how he'd linked her with dentist parents, and her bossy attitude was practically the same.

So then he had another encounter with nicer Dudley, Draco Malfoy if he remembered. He knew where Draco came from, after all didn't Dudley start spitting and rampaging like a dragon when he took a temper tantrum, but Malfoy was a mystery.

Harry concluded he must have heard it somewhere; there were so many odd surnames out there after all.

So he got to school, got sorted via singing hat, which was super funny, and put into a house of lions.

He kinda wished he got put into the snake house, he liked snakes, they were cool.

Anyway, then there were all the teachers. They were easy.

Albus Dumbledore was the weird old man down the street, who always dressed funny. Severus Snape was the creepy man who hated kids and snapped whenever they got too close to his house. Professor McGonagall was the strict teacher at school, so was professor Sprout, though she was nicer. Madam Pomfrey was the school nurse. Professor Flitwick was the short joyful man Harry saw a while back, and professor Trelawney was the batty old woman a few streets down who could have been a mad cat lady like Mrs Figg had she not married an even crazier man, looking very similar to Mr Filch.

Granted they did have one cat, though the hissing spitting thing was definitely the mad man's baby from the way Harry saw his cradling it a couple of times.

Harry was sure drugs were involved with those two.

He couldn't remember much of the other teachers, but he could remember some of the students.

Neville was the really shy boy in the class down from him, and Luna was the pretty girl who wasn't really popular, but nice enough that no one really bothered him.

Odd that the dream had her bullied.

Seamus was a member of Dudley's gang, Malcolm, the boy who wasn't all that nasty, but did like playing with a lighter. And Dean was the dark coloured boy in his class, though Harry had never really talked to him.

Cedric was the boy who lived a couple of houses down, and who was always nice to everyone. Viktor was the famous sports star he saw on TV. Cho was the older girl who had not long moved to high school, and who Harry had a little crush on for a while.

And the girls from the quidditch team were the sisters that lived next to the Cedric look alike, one of which the boy was dating though Harry couldn't remember which one. Harry had always thought it odd that two of the sisters were white and one dark coloured, but then he saw that the mum was dark and the dad white so it made more sense.

Colin was Cedric look alike's little brother, while Dennis was the hyperactive boy at school who couldn't sit still for longer than a minute.

Harry couldn't remember any of the other students after that. Well besides Marcus Flint and Peter Pettigrew's look alike's. They were men he saw hanging out in a gang smoking and causing problems. The Pettigrew look alike was the perfect choice for a rat from what Harry remembered.

As for the other people he dreamed about, let's see where did they came from?

Quirrell, another funny name, was the somewhat quiet man who lived alone across the street. Gilderoy was an actor on TV, suited him. Remus Lupin, the werewolf which was so awesome but also quite sad, was the kindly man down the street that occasionally asked Harry to help out in the garden in exchange for a couple of pound.

Sirius Black though was definitely a man he'd read about in the papers. It was funny that the dream version of the man was innocent, and his godfather of all things, when the real man was a real criminal who had killed someone in a fight. It had happened a few years back but it was enough to scare Harry out of wanting to run away just encase the bad man got him.

Harry wondered why he'd made the man his godfather. Maybe he just wanted to make the man seem like a nice person to stop him being scared.

The creepy Mad Eye Moody was a man he saw on TV, in a horror show Vernon and Petunia were watching late at night. Harry was still doing chores and happened to see a few scenes.

Umbridge was the overly sweet woman six houses down who always spoke in a high pitched voice, wore pink all the time, and gave out sweets to any kids she came across. Dudley always went to her for extra treats. Although she seemed really nice, Harry always thought of her as a disguised witch luring kids in to cook them like in the fairytale.

He knew she wasn't at all like that, but it made him laugh sometimes.

Madam Bones and, Scrimgeour was it, were police officers who came to his school to talk about stranger danger. The minister, Fudge which was Harry's favourite sweet, was one of the politicians Harry remembered reading about for a project, and Barty Sr was his rival.

Lucius Malfoy was definitely the nicer looking version of Vernon, which made sense though why the long hair Harry didn't know, and Bellatrix was another actor on TV. So was Barty Jr

Voldemort, now Harry hadn't a clue where that face came from. Red eyes, snake like slits for a nose, pale face. Perhaps it was more of a mesh of faces morphed together to form a bad guy needed for the dream.

Any other face he'd seen and even put names to he couldn't remember seeing in real life, but he figured it was just random people he'd passed in the street or at the shops.

Then there were the animals. Boy were they awesome. Dragons and unicorns and huge snakes and three headed dogs, which Harry knew came from Marge and her horrible dogs. And one of his class projects involved splitting the kids into groups and calling each group by a mythical animal, then having to research and made a presentation about said animal. Harry's group got the hippogriff, so that was where Buckbeak came from.

And people being able to turn into animals, what kid wouldn't want to see that happening. Harry was only disappointed he didn't have an animal form; it was his dream after all. It could have been a snake, or a lion since he was in that house, or some form of really fast bird since dream him seemed to love quidditch.

Seriously what a funny name for a sport.

And Hedwig. He actually had an owl called Hedwig, where did he get Hedwig from? He thought snowy owls were beautiful after seeing one in a documentary. It would be awesome to have one as a pet.

And Dobby, the house elf, what was that about? Maybe Dobby was like another part, a younger part of Harry, the one eager to please and forced to do work.

Why was his dream making him get in trouble and be hurt all the time anyway? Wasn't being a hero supposed to be easy?

Well, maybe not. It was a lot of hard work to help people, and even Superman and Batman got hurt at times.

Even his scar was cooler looking in the dream. His real scar didn't look anything like a lightning bolt; it was just a jagged line on his head.

Caused by a car crash, which killed his drunken dad and mom and left him stuck at the Dursleys to be used as a slave.

Harry sighed.

The dream was fun, and it would be something he could think back on when things got tough, but magic simply wasn't real. Brooms didn't fly, people didn't have wands, unicorns and dragons didn't exist.

He wrapped his cover round him, the sudden turn of thoughts making his mood drop.

He shouldn't be so upset though, things were looking up.

When he first started school he was too scared to ask for help regarding the horrible way the Dursleys were treating him, but the teachers weren't scared to help him. He got extra attention on the playground when it was noticed that Dudley and his gang liked to bully him. He got a little extra food at lunch time by the nice dinner ladies and even got some spare sandwiches to take to the park and eat after school. He eventually got old enough to understand what the Dursleys were doing to him was wrong and told a teacher, who then got in touch properly with social services now that he'd opened up to her.

Vernon, when he was called in, tried to play out that Harry was causing problems and being a bad boy, but the headmaster saw right through it.

Nowadays Harry got more food at the house and slightly less chores, for fear the police would be involved, and sometimes at school he got a visit from a nice lady who spoke to him about everything that was happening with his case.

Come to think of it she reminded him of Tonks, pink hair and everything.

He hadn't yet been moved out his cupboard, but that was ok, for now.

It was taking time, but Harry didn't mind waiting. Not when he knew there was a lovely foster family who was waiting for him when it was all over. A family that reminded him a lot of the dream picture of his parents. A red head lady with green eyes, and a messy black haired man with a cheeky grin.

It wouldn't be long now.

'Up! Get up! Now!

Harry groaned softly as his aunt rapped on the door again. It was time to make breakfast once more for his oh so caring family.

'Up!' the woman screeched before walking towards the kitchen.

Harry stretched as much as he could and pushed his hair from his eyes, getting up and out his cupboard to follow her. Last time she screeched at him was Dudley's birthday, where Harry had a fun time at the zoo because poor Mrs Figg had broken her leg and couldn't watch him.

He didn't talk to the snake, but wouldn't it be so cool if he could.

The Dursleys were on tenderhooks around him ever since getting a call from social services a few weeks ago. They considered themselves the perfect normal family, but were anything but. No one in the area really liked them, and no one really believed them when they said Harry was a troublemaker. The social services, and the police, had plenty of evidence of neglect and abuse. Right now it was only a matter of time before Harry was taken away for good and the Dursleys punished.

As Harry saw to the bacon, smiling a little knowing he would get some this time, he heard Dudley come thundering down the stairs, thumping his stick and proudly showing off his new Smeltings uniform.

Harry considered himself lucky, before all the issue with social services Petunia and Vernon were going to send him off to Stonewall High school. He'd heard far too many horror stories from the place and was terrified of going. Now though, with his grades on the up, the result of the Dursleys being prevented from punishing him from doing better than Dudley, and social services and the teachers helping him, he was on his way to a much better high school. Thankfully not the same one as Dudley.

Harry rolled his eyes as Petunia smothered the fat boy with praise and hugs. Honestly did they have to spoil him rotten like that; it was hardly doing Dudley any good.

Vernon soon followed, adding his own praise, and the family sat down to breakfast

As they ate, Harry sitting at the breakfast bar, the click of the letter box was heard, and the flop of letters on the doormat.

'Get the post Dudley'.

'Make Harry get it'.

'Get the post Harry'.

'Make Dudley get it'.

Vernon growled at him and Dudley leaned over, ready to poke him with that blasted stick. To prevent an argument, Harry decided to go ahead and get the blasted mail.

As he picked up a postcard from horrible Marge, and what looked like a bill, despite every logical thought he had, he couldn't help but look a little longingly at the mail slot.

Perhaps. Just perhaps.


End file.
